Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-08-19
TALMAGE'S SERMON,
The Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: "The Christian Prin-
cipIes Involved I'm Life
and Fire insurance.

/ ONhSStS ALI Ofs
These were the words of Joseph, the Presi,
uenL OF the hrst insurance company that
the world ever saw. Pharaoh had dreafft that
distracted BIN. He thought he stood on the
banks OF the River Nile, and saw coming ut
| cut OF the river seven fSt, sleek, glossy cows
and they bagah TO browse in the thick grass
Nothing frightful about that But after
them, coming out of the same river, he saw
seven cows that were guant and starved, and
the worst looking cows that had ever been
seen in the land, and in the ferocity of hunger
they devoured their seveh fat predecessors.
Pharaoh, the King, ssat fer joseph to de.
cipher these midnight hicroglyphics. Joseph
made short work OF it, and intimated the
seven fat cows that came out of the river
are seven years with plenty to eat, the
are seven years with nothing to eat.
Now" said 10 eph, "Let us bake enc!
| Gfth of the corr, crop 81 tBs seve1
prosperous years and keep It as provision
| for the seven years in which there shall be no
corn crop" The King took the counsel
! and appointed Joseph, because of his integ-
rity and public sPiritedness, as the President
OF the undertaking, The farmers paid
| one-ffth of their income as q premium, In
| all the towns and cities of the laid there
were branch houses. This great Egyptian
life insurance company had millions of dol
lars as assets After awhile the dark days
| came and the whole nation would have
starved if it had not been for the provision
they had made for the future. But now
these suffering families had nothing to do
but go up and collect the amount of their
life policies, The Bible pitts 1T in ons short
| phrase: "Ih all the land of Egypt there was
bread" say this was the first life insurance
company. 1t was divinely organized. 1t
had in it all the advantages of the "whole
life PLAN" of the "tontine plan," of the ''re-
| GnrNa1 of,An nfYNla nd oil tha ,Nfl fl,o.
good plans. We are told that Rev. Dr. An.
hate, OF Lincolnshire, England, Originated
the first life insurance company in 1913. MOI
it is as old as the corn cribs of Egypt; and
God himself was the author and originator
If that were not so ] woult not take your
time and mine in Sabbath discussion of this
subject | feel it is a theme vital, religious
and of infinite import, the morals of life and
! fire insurance
! About ten or twelve years ago there was
great panic in life insurance which did good.
| Under the storm the untrustwerthy and DO.
gus institutions were scattered, While the
genuine were tested and firmly established,
and where does the life insurance Institution
stand to-day! What amount of comfort, of
education, of moral and spiritual advantage
Is represented in the sin1ple statistic that in
this COUNTRY the life insurance companies in
one year paid 81, 900, 900 to the families of the
bereft; and in five years they paid $500, ,000,-
OOO to the families of the bereft; and are
promising to pay--and hold themselves in
readiness to pay-$2, ,000, 100000 to the fami-
lies of the bereft!
They have actually paid out more by divi-
dends and death claims than they have ever
received in premiums. | know Of what 1
| speak, The life insurance COMPANIES OF this
country paid more than $7,000,0 900 of taxes I'd
the government in five years. So, instead of
these companies being indebted to the land,
| lNn lnsa1 10 tr,lo Nt,1 -
against life insurance because here and thers
one company has behaved badly is as absurd
as 1t would be for a man to burn down 900
acres of harvest field in order to kill the moles
and potato bugs-as prepoSterous as man
who should blow UP crowded steamer in
mid. Atlantic for the purpose of destroying
the barnacles. on the bottom of the hulk.
| But what does the Bible say in regard to
this subjectl If the Bible favors the institu-
ton, | will favor it; if the Bible denounces it,
will denounce it. In addition to the fore
cast of Joseph in the text, | call your atten-
tion to Pauls comparison. Here is one man
who, through neglect fails to support his
family while he lives, or after he dies. Here
is another man, who abhors the Scriptures
and rejects God. Which of those men is the
worSea Well, you say, the latter. Paul says
the former. Paul says that man who neg
ects to care for his household is more obnox
ious than man who rejects the Scriptures:
He that providcth not for his own, and espe-
cially those of his own household, Is worse
than an intidel" Life insurance companies
help most of us to provide for our families
after we are gone; but if we have the money
to pay the premiums and do not pay them,
we have no right to expect mercy at the hand
Of God i'll the judgment. We are worse
than Tom Paine. worse than Voltaire,
and worse than Shaftesbury. The Bible de-
clares tive are worse than an infdel.
After the certificate of death has been made
out, and thirty or sixty days have passed and
the officer of the life insurance company
comes into the bereft household and pays
down the hard cash on an insurance policy,
that officer of the company is performing a
positively religious rite according to the
Apostle James, who says: TRUE religion
and undefiled before God and the Father is
this To visit the fatherless and the widow
in their affliction,n and so on. The religion
of Christ proposes to take care of the tenn
poral wants of the people as well as the spirit
ual. When Hezekiah was dying the injunc-
ton came to him: "Set thy house in
order, for thou shalt die and not live.'
That injunction in our day would
mean: make your will; settle up your
accounts; make things plain; don't de-
ceive your heirs with rolls of worthless
mining stock; don't deceive them with
deeds for western lands that will never
yield any crop but chills and fever; don't
leave for them notes that have been out
lawed, and second mortgages on property
that will not pay the first" "Set thy house
inorder." That is, fix up things, so your
going out of the world may make as little
CONSERVATION as possible. See the lean cattle
devouring the fat cattle, and in the time OF
plenty prepare for the time of want. The
difficulty is, when men think of their death
they are afraid to think of it only in connec
tion with their spiritual welfare, and not OF
the devastation in the household which will
come because of their emigration from it. il
is meanly selfish for you to be so absorbed in
the heaven to which you are going that you
forget what is to become of your wife and
children after you are dead. You can gel
out of this world without leaving dollar and
yet die happy if you could not provide foi
them: you can trust them in the hands of the
God who owns all the harvests, and the herds
and the flocks; but il you could pay th'
premiums on policy and neglect them it is
mean thing for you to 60 up to heaven while
they go into the poorhouse. You, at death
move into mansion, river front, and they
move into two rooms on the fourth story of {
tenement house in a back street. When they
are out at the elbows and knees, the though
of your splendid robes in heaven will not keel
them warm. The minister may preach
splendid sermon over your remains, and tn
quartet NAV sing like four angels in th
organ loft, but your death WIN be swindle
You had the means to provide for the com
fort of your household when you left it an
you wickedly neglected it. "Oh," says som
one, u have more faith than you; believ
when l go out Il this world the Lor,
will provide for them" Go to Black
wells Island, go through all the poorhouse
of the country, and I will show you hov
often God provides for the neglected children
of neglectful parents That is. he provide
for them through public charity. AS TO
myself, would rather have the Lord provid,
for my family in private home, and through
my own industry, and paternal and coniuga
faithfulness But says some man: 81 NEAR
In the next ten or twenty years to make 9
great fortune, and so | shall leave my family
Nwhen go out of this word very comfort